Chapter 39: Chapter 39: Resentment.

“Lord Rosenroth.”

Rafael closed his eyes for the briefest fraction of a second before turning.

Gregoris stood before him not as a Shadow commander, but as the Duke of Alamina in full ceremonial regalia. The cut of his coat was immaculate, tailored to an inch of its life, dark fabric threaded with silver blue, a shimmer of ether threading through it. His posture was perfect, his expression polite, his presence… unchanged.

That was the problem.

“Your Grace,” Rafael replied, bowing. His tone was flawless, deferential without warmth. “Congratulations on your return. I trust Donin did not detain you longer than expected.”

Gregoris smiled.

It was a court smile. Entirely inappropriate for the way his eyes lingered, slow and intent, as if Rafael were the only fixed point in a moving room.

“Not long enough to miss this,” Gregoris said lightly. “You performed beautifully.”

Rafael inclined his head. “The ceremony was designed to pass quickly.”

“And yet,” Gregoris continued, voice smooth, “I found it… memorable.”

Rafael resisted the urge to grit his teeth. “That was not its purpose.”

“No,” Gregoris agreed, leaning just a fraction closer, close enough to invade without touching. “But it may become its consequence.”

Around them, Pais’s delegation erupted into laughter over something loudly inappropriate. Silk brushed past. A courtier excused himself. The moment should have dissolved.

It did not.

Rafael straightened, meeting Gregoris’s gaze fully now, professionalism held like a shield. “If you are here to offer congratulations, you have done so. I have obligations.”

“I know,” Gregoris said pleasantly. “I read your schedule. It’s brutal. You look exhausted.”

“That is an observation, not a courtesy,” Rafael replied.

Gregoris’s smile widened, just enough to be irritating. “I find honesty more respectful than flattery.”

Rafael’s eyes narrowed. “Then allow me to return the favor. Your interest is noted. It has been noted for some time. It does not require further emphasis.”

“Doesn’t it?” Gregoris asked, genuinely curious. “You were kinder last time I returned from Donin. Polite. You didn’t poison me, but you kissed me back. I wondered if that meant progress.”

“It was meant to make you lose interest.” Rafael said, irritated, only to realize that Gregoris had a way of making him lose his control.

Gregoris’s smile held, but it changed. The courtly polish stayed in place while something intent settled behind it, sharp enough to make Rafael’s shoulders tighten despite himself.

“Lose interest,” Gregoris repeated, tasting the words. “That was your strategy.”

“Yes,” Rafael said. Flat. Honest. “It was efficient.”

A low sound left Gregoris’s chest, not quite a laugh. “You kissed me in an empty office, after a campaign, with blood still on my collar. You cleaned me up and went back to your seating charts.” His gaze flicked to Rafael’s face, then lingered. “You thought that if the chase is over, then I lose interest?”

“Aren’t you tormenting me only because I react the way I do? The fact that I don’t fold like others?”

Gregoris tilted his head, studying Rafael with the same measured attention he gave to battlefield anomalies that refused to resolve.

“That,” he said softly, “is what you tell yourself so you can keep believing this is a game of reactions.”

Rafael’s jaw tightened. “It isn’t?”

“If it were,” Gregoris replied, voice calm and unhurried, “you would have stopped mattering the moment you stopped pushing back.”

He leaned in again, close enough to make retreat noticeable if Rafael chose it. Rafael did not move. That, too, was noted.

“You don’t fold,” Gregoris continued. “You don’t beg. You don’t perform fear or flirtation or outrage. You assess, you decide, and then you act as if the world will accommodate your decision.” A faint smile touched his mouth. “Most people don’t even realize they’re reacting. You do. And you still refuse.”

Rafael swallowed, irritation flaring sharp and bright. “That is not an invitation.”

“No,” Gregoris agreed easily.

“You kissed me because you wanted control back,” he went on, voice low enough that it threaded only between them. “Because for one moment, after Donin, after blood and exhaustion and expectation, you decided where the line was.”

Rafael’s fingers curled once at his side. He said nothing.

Gregoris’s mouth curved then, not into the polite court smile he had worn moments earlier, but into something dashing and unapologetic, the kind of smile that turned heads without asking permission. A few nearby courtiers did look, drawn by instinct rather than curiosity.

“And you thought,” he continued, calmly, “that closing the distance would end the pursuit.”

Rafael lifted his chin. “It should have.”

“For anyone else,” Gregoris said. His eyes flicked over Rafael once more, slow and unhidden. “Yes.”

He stepped back fully now, reclaiming the space of a Duke among nobles, silk and titles settling around him like armor. The shift was immediate, presence redistributed, attention following him whether it wanted to or not.

“You’re playing a quiet game,” Gregoris added, already half-turned away. “You hide, normalize, and try to end the anomaly by treating it like a routine.”

Rafael’s voice sharpened. “And you’re mistaken if you think…”

“I’m not,” Gregoris cut in gently.

He glanced back over his shoulder, smile still in place, eyes alight with something patient and dangerous. “I’ve been five steps ahead since the moment you decided not to poison me.”

That smile widened just enough to promise consequences.

“You’ll understand soon,” he said. “When the world fails to accommodate you for once.”

Then he was gone, absorbed into the flow of the hall, laughter and light and politics bending subtly in his wake.

Rafael stood where he was, pulse steady only by discipline, the echo of that smile lingering like a threat deferred.

’The world accommodates me?’ He scoffed at that thought. ’Not once did this world give me anything easy. Not once did the world accommodate me just because I wanted to.’

Rafael’s trembling fingers curled into fists, his nails biting into the palm of his hand.

He felt only one thing for the world and Gregoris. Resentment.

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